Among the shyest and rarest of wild animals, the bear-faced panda, with its black and white coat and prominent black eye markings, is one of the world's best-known mammals.
Giant pandas are classified in the Ursidae family as bears by most scientists. In the past, they had been grouped in the Procyonidae family along with raccoons and lesser pandas. However, DNA testing in the 1980's determined that giant pandas were true bears, belonging in Ursidae more so than the Procyonidae family. Fossils have been found showing that giant panda bears evolved somewhere between 2 and 3 million years ago. Yet, they were unknown to the western world until 1869. The giant panda's scientific name Ailuropus melanoleucus melanoleucus. means black and white bear. Its Chinese name Da xiong mao means great bear cat. The only known subspecies is the qinling panda.
